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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29457438">Blue</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElvishPotterhead/pseuds/ElvishPotterhead'>ElvishPotterhead</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Collection of Short Stories [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Hair Dyeing, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Pining, Strict Parents, wlw</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:40:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,689</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29457438</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElvishPotterhead/pseuds/ElvishPotterhead</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Rowan has known Elsie for a long time; about as long as she’s known she was gay. After the musical she was part of ended, she was forced to find something else to do with her time. Apparently, that something was developing a crush on Elsie. But Elsie has very strict parents and she has never liked anyone, male or female. Rowan doesn’t want to ruin what they already have. What is she supposed to do? Tell her?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Collection of Short Stories [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2152455</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Blue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Blue<br/>Written by me<br/>8/2/2020<br/>Includes: WLW couple, strict parents, hair dyeing, pining, implied homophobia, happy ending<br/>This is loosely based on a true story.</p><p>The curtains closed. The applause was deafening and we cheered as we streamed toward the doors for the post-musical meet-and-greet. One of the tech people pulled the garage door up and I pulled my dress down at the waist slightly to rid it of wrinkles. I stood just inside as everyone shoved around me, trying to get out. My friends had to get their mics off before they could go outside, and I really didn't want to go outside without them. <br/>I smiled widely once I saw my friends coming down the hallway, heels clicking almost louder than their laughter. Elsie was still in her finale costume but she'd switched out her character shoes for her rainbow striped Converse. Arabella was in her Madonna costume, blonde wig still pinned to her head. Taylor had taken off her false eyelashes, but her costume was the same as it had been for all of the second act. <br/>"Hurry up!" I called with a grin. Elsie rolled her eyes but sped up slightly, linking elbows with me as Arabella and Taylor caught up slowly. I liked how Elsie looked in her red pencil skirt and suit jacket. She was very pretty. <br/>"Can you believe the show is already over?" Taylor asked us as we made our way to the front of the school where the audience had gathered.<br/>"It hasn't hit me yet." I replied. Arabella linked onto my other arm. <br/>"I can't believe Taylor is going to graduate this year." She said. We all cried out dramatically.<br/>"No!" I called. Taylor laughed.<br/>"You aren't allowed to leave the group chat, Taylor." Arabella declared.<br/>"And neither is Elsie, since she's graduating next year." I said.<br/>"One of us per year." Taylor commented. She grinned at me. "The baby's last." <br/>"Shut up," I protested affectionately.<br/>"Baby," Elsie cooed, grinning. I rolled my eyes but laughed. <br/>As we reached the crowds, Arabella and Taylor found their friends in the audience. At some point Elsie had switched from linking arms to holding my hand and I wasn't mad. We stood there in the noise and the crowd, an island of silence. Nobody was there to see either of us this time. <br/>"I'm going to go change." Elsie told me. "Will you come with me?" <br/>I nodded and Elsie tugged me by the hand through the crowds and back toward the dressing room. We were the first ones back and we were wiping down our makeup tables before anyone else had even come in.<br/>"You guys were amazing!" One of the volunteer moms announced once she'd come in. I smiled but didn't look back at her, she wouldn't really notice anyway. I changed out of my ensemble dress, desensitized to being nearly naked in front of other people after so many performances and years in the locker rooms. <br/>"Come on, Rowan. You're taking forever." Elsie whined jokingly the minute she was dressed and ready to leave. I was tying my shoes.<br/>"I'm almost ready." I told her.<br/>"Hurry up, stupid." She replied. She made a little heart with her index finger and thumb and thrust her hand right in my face. I smiled up at her, and stiff once my shoes were tied. We linked arms again and made our way out. <br/>"Bye, Arabella!" We called as we left, arm in arm. She didn't reply.<br/>-<br/>I had been to Elsie's house twice before, but never to dye her hair. We had talked about it for weeks, but I always assumed she would ask one of her other friends to do it for her. However, I was the one she chose. We had gotten box dye at Walmart and I spent every second anxious over her parents hating me and never letting me come over again. That was always a threat. Her parents were so overbearing that there was a door connecting Elsie's room to theirs and a camera in the living room and you couldn't use the laptop they shared in a bedroom and her phone was looked through all the time. It made me angry for her sake, but she was too scared of being labeled as a "bad kid" to fight back. <br/>I would beat her dad up if I weren't also a coward.<br/>However, I was welcomed warmly and I followed Elsie back to her room where we took off our shoes and I set down my bag that I had shoved my Polaroid camera into earlier that day so that I could have a picture of us. <br/>Elsie set the dye in the bathroom counter when we got there and locked the door so her siblings wouldn't bother us. I was nervous. I had dyed my ex's hair, but never Elsie's. She had never dyed her hair and I was mostly worried about the inherent romantic qualities of dyeing someone's hair for them in their bathroom. I knew it wouldn't take long, though, because Elsie had very short hair. <br/>She had chosen an electric blue that I was jealous of. I could never do a bright color like that, my parents were too afraid of being judged. <br/>I knew what I was doing, so I glanced over the instructions and handed Elsie the dye bottle to shake when I had put it together. She shook it for a while as I laid a towel over the sink, not sure if we would use it or not. Then she handed it back to me.<br/>"Did I shake it well?" She asked. <br/>"Yeah." I replied. "You'd did very well." And Elsie's eyes lit up at the praise. She was probably really nervous, especially since her dad wasn't even home yet and he was the worst of her parents. I told her to sit and she crossed her legs on the tile floor of her bathroom, then I put on the cheap plastic gloves that had come in the container. I pulled the long top part of their hair to the side and took a deep breath before drawing a line of blue dye over her part with the bottle.<br/>"There's no going back now." I told her.<br/>"There's no going back." Elsie repeated. <br/>I smeared dye over as much of her hair as I could, but it was so fine and so lifeless naturally that I couldn't be sure if I got all of it.<br/>"My hair is really hard to color." Elsie informed me, as I was nearly finished. She had tried to split it black with colored hairspray, and it had mostly worked. I want too sure where she was getting the information, but I didn't question it. My back was starting to ache badly and I needed to sit down, but all the images I conjured in my head of my sitting on the lid of the toilet wheel Elsie was on the floor with her hair in my hands made my nauseous and embarrassed so I didn't say anything. <br/>"You can sit down." Elsie told me. <br/>"I'm fine." I lied, though now that she had said something, the offer was more appealing. Finally, I gave in, once my my back hurt so bad I could barely hold up my arms. That happened sometimes, I was too scared of the doctors to find out why. <br/>I rand my hands through her dye-coated locks to try and get everything covered in blue before I sat back.<br/>"And it's finished." I declared. I dropped the empty bottle into the trash can and attempted to take off a glove without dyeing my skin.<br/>"Do you need help?" Elsie asked me, already reaching out to help. I let her tug on the wrist until I could pull my hand out and the fingers went inside out and all the dye was on the inside, then I did the other one myself. <br/>"Now we wait thirty minutes." I told Elsie, setting a timer on my phone. When we left, I watched her, worried that the dye would get on the white walls. I forgot about it eventually. Her mom seemed very excited to see the color when it was finished. I refrained from being jealous, though, because I preferred my anti-colored-hair parents toElsie's anti-childhood-freedom parents. <br/>-<br/>Thirty burning minutes later, the timer went off and we rushed to the bathroom to wash the dye out of Elsie's hair. She leaned over the edge of the bathtub as I got the shower head out of its holder and made sure it was warm enough. Then I held it over her head. <br/>I was nervous to put my hands in her hair, as it felt very intimate and I was very gay and I did not want to fall in love with my best friend. After what felt like hours of her sub-par scrubbing, though, I gave in and allowed my hands to run through the fine strands.<br/>"It's getting in my eyes." Elsie complained and I laughed. Her hair was soft and smelled really nice when we put the hair conditioner in that had come in the box. The water ran clear of blue after several longs minutes and I shut off the water and pulled the towel she had on her shoulders over her head. My hands weren't even tinged blue, which was lucky for me. <br/>I taught Elsie how to twist the towel around her hair so it could dry without dripping on everything and she smiled at me like she was a caveman and I'd discovered fire. It made me feel warm inside. <br/>It wasn't until we ran back to her room where her little sister was reading on Elsie's bed and my Polaroid was in Elsie's sister's hands and Elsie's arm was around my shoulders and mine was around her waist that I realized the warm feeling hadn't gone away.<br/>-<br/>I laid in my bed for hours every night. We were on break from school, so I had that time. <br/>I couldn't fall in love with Elsie. She wasn't interested in dating. Her parents were horribly strict. Elsie had never been in love and I had never had a best friend-turned-girlfriend that didn't crash and burn. <br/>I tossed and turned in my sheets. I would never tell her. She would never have to know.<br/>I felt the ghost of her touch on my hands and my shoulders for days.<br/>- <br/>The last three months of the year passed quickly as we all succumbed to finals. Elsie started drivers Ed two years late as she turned seventeen right as her senior year started and I turned fifteen just before that. <br/>The blue in Elsie's hair had faded a bit and now looked more like a balayage since her roots had grown out so much. She'd never had the courage to dye her hair on her own and her parents refused to have anyone over to do it with her for some reason. They refused to pay for the dye and Elsie couldn't afford to have her hair professionally done. So it grew out and the blue washed down the drain with each shower. <br/>She texted less and less as senior year worked her to the bone. I rarely had homework and the most stressful thing in my life was learning how to parallel park, so I could only watch as Elsie grew more distant. Her family moved close to Christmas into a bigger house with more room for the seven of them. She went to the same school, but was stressed out with having to unpack, knowing she would pack for college in a few months. I didn't know how to help her. Her parents would not let people spend any time with her outside of school.<br/>I was lonely, I didn't have many friends for most of high school. I sometimes ran my thumb over the Polaroid picture of Elsie and I that I'd hung above my bed with the other pictures I'd taken. That felt like a long time ago.<br/>-<br/>Elsie asked me to come over the day she moved into her dorm. She went to a college on a religious scholarship and, despite hoping for the school in Hawaii, she went to a University we had planned on if the scholarship didn't work out so that we could live together. I would be starting my junior year soon. <br/>Elsie's dorm was empty and plain and she was rooming with a girl who was going into theatre just like Elsie was. I was a little surprised that Elsie had found time to invite me over at all.<br/>Elsie had barely spoken to her parents since she'd left, and I was very proud of her for finally letting go and allowing herself to be free. <br/>"I missed you." Was the first thing out of Elsie's mouth when we met in her school parking lot. I didn't have clearance to just walk in on my own. Elsie led me up to her room, vacated by her roommate for the weekend since she'd wanted to stay with her boyfriend. <br/>I helped Elsie unpack boxes of clothes and posters. She had no problem with people looking through her stuff after years of it being forced. I would have been the opposite. Elsie still had short hair and she was still barely taller than me and she still had thin honey hands that fit in mine so well. I thought I'd suppressed the feelings, but it was no wonder I hadn't dated at all. <br/>"Hey, Rowan?" Elsie asked me, pushing the piles to the side and sitting on her bed. "Are you okay?" <br/>I sat beside her. Apparently I'd been distracted enough for her to notice.<br/>"Actually, no." I said quietly. My heart thumped in my chest. I felt sick and my hands were getting sweaty. If she didn't take it well, at least she was nearly three hours away and I wouldn't have to face her again. <br/>Elsie took my hands, eyes shining with worry. <br/>"What is it, love?" She asked. I hadn't confided in her in a long time and I suppose we were both feeling suppressed. <br/>"I..." I stumbled over my words, unable to find the ones I needed. I pulled my hands from hers so I could squeeze them together painfully. <br/>"I really, really like you." I said. The silence was painful. <br/>"As more than a friend." I added, for clarification. I wasn't able to look at Elsie's face.<br/>"I have for a really long time but I haven't been able to say anything because I know that you really aren't interested and your parents would not have reacted week since they thinking being gay is wrong and-"<br/>"Rowan." Elsie's clam voice cut through my nervous rambling and I squeezed my hands again. It was hard to breathe.<br/>" I think I like you too, Rowan." <br/>I looked up. Elsie's face was red and she ran a hand through her hair.<br/>"I don't really know what it feels like, but I think I like you too, I like you a lot more than I've ever liked anyone." She admitted. <br/>I let out a breath and my hands relaxed.<br/>"Really?" I asked. Elsie nodded.<br/>"I would like to go on a date with you, if that's alright." Elsie told me. "Nothing too serious, just in case." <br/>"But, maybe someday?" I asked her. I could always be honest about my feelings with Elsie, I wasn't sure why I felt like I couldn't.<br/>"Maybe someday." Elsie replied with a happy smile. She reached over and squeezed my hands, then she reached into a Walmart bag beside her bed and, with laughter in her eyes, she held up a box of the same electric blue dye we had used two years before.<br/>"It's a bit funny now, but I was hoping you could redo my hair for me." She told me. <br/>This time my hands did stain blue, but I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.</p><p>Completed 12:12 2/9/20</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is possibly the longest story in the collection, definitely the longest so far. I wrote it because I realized I have a bit of a Craig's on my best friend while I was dyeing her hair blue the other day and I don't want to have a crush on her because she has really really strict to parents and as far as I'm concerned, she's essentially aromantic. She just really doesn't want to label herself right now, and I respect that. This is basically how I hope it could go if I still like her when she goes off the college and can do what she wants. However, it's extremely unlikely and I'm certain I will lose her as a friend if I say anything, even though her other friend, who is also a lesbian, had been asking her out repeated for several years and they are still close. I just want to get over her. However, I think this is a cute little story about hair dyeing and pining and first loves and third loves.</p><p>Also, I apologize for any spelling mistakes, it's very hard for me to write correctly when I'm so tired my eyes burn and my dominant hand is asleep.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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